The daily news cycles have kept us all up to date with what has been going on with our current administration, and each week feels like a new low for the United States of America. Nevermind culture wars and increasing partisanship in America, where half of us think we’re living in an oligarchy whereas the other half unknowingly are—its clear to see that the United States has its ground shifting under its feet with its radical decoupling from China, and the rest of the world.
Now, I don’t think anyone can disagree that the United States detachment from China is necessary, and was inevitable. In the past few decades the focus of firms primarily based in America has been to outsource manufacturing overseas for cheaper labor while continuing to sell to the largest consumer market in the entire world. But the primary fact that Bill Clinton neglected when he signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), or what George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump found out too late, is that when you are the world’s manufacturer for over a decade—you learn a thing or two. All of that importing, outsourcing, and offshoring of manufacturing offered a supply chain control so immense, directly in the hands of our largest geopolitical rival.
When the Chinese government pushed forward with the “Ten Cities Thousand Vehicles” project in 2010-2013, Americans didn’t bat an eye. When Apple, Microsoft, and Google began outsourcing their manufacturing work in the early 2000s, Americans still didn’t budge. Only when China begins to play such a significant role the world’s global supply chain of emerging and important industries like EVs, Batteries, and Solar Panels, do we begin to realize the effects of our desire for cheap labor and imports. Now, we must suffer the consequences, and be behind on major economic innovation for the first time in the 21st century.
As if our industrial decline wasn’t bad enough, President Trump’s actions within the first 100 days of his presidency has lost us immense soft power and positive relationships around the world. The worst part is, it was all in attempt to recover the now distant possibility of reaffirming our industry.
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